Population of Hindostan.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7077, 24 February 1893, Page 2

Population of Hindostan.

The satire population of Hindostan does not exceed two hundred and eighty-eight millions ; yet India is not over-populated. On the contrary, unlike Europe, it still affords room for an expansion far greater than this generation, or indeed the next century, will in all probability be called upon to witness. The people are poor, though, considering the mode of Jiving imposed on them, it must be remembered, bv the climate, and by the religion of the 1 vast majority, not poorer than the larger portion of the European proletariat. This is mainly owing to the fact that they are agriculturists, each cultivating, as do the Irish peasants, a piece of land, tbe produce of which is barely sufficient to supply tbe ryot’a wants, and not enough to afford any surplus ' wherewith to tide over a bad season- Hence the famines of India. The mean density of the population of India is 184 to the square mile, the most densely populated regions those which owing to their greater resources, afford the easiest means of livelihood—showing about 600 to tbe same area. Yet in Europe there are three countries Great Britain, Saxony and Belguim—where there is a density of population not much less. On the other band, there are wide tracts of jungle quite capable, if necessary, of being brought into cultivation, “ where beast is more and more, and man is less and less " In England fifty, three per cent of us live in towns with over twenty thousand inhabitants ; in India, using the word urban in the broadest municipal sense, only about ten per cent are urban, and of those only four and three quarters pe? cent are citisens of towns with twenty thousand or more people.